Europe Condemns McVeigh Execution

M A D R I D, Spain, June 11, 2001 -- The execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh today unleashed condemnationacross Europe on the eve of President Bush's first official visit to the continent.

European opposition to the death penalty outweighedabhorrence at McVeigh's crime when he was put to death bylethal injection at an Indiana prison for a 1995 blast thatgutted a federal office building and killed 168 people.

Critics of capital punishment called it a barbaric,blood-thirsty way of making McVeigh pay for his crime.

"By executing the first federal death row prisoner innearly four decades, the USA has allowed vengeance to triumphover justice and distanced itself yet further from theaspirations of the international community," theLondon-based human rights group Amnesty International said.

The United States' penchant for the death penalty puts it ethicallyat odds with its traditional European allies, which have allbanned it. The last person executed in the European Union waskilled by guillotine in France in 1977.

"The death penalty is a barbarism inappropriate to ourtimes," said Antonio Maria Pereira, president of the Portuguesehuman rights group Law and Justice.

Shadow Over Bush Visit

Controversy surrounding McVeigh's execution could cast ashadow over Bush's five-nation tour, which is expected to drawstreet protests not only against the death penalty but alsoagainst his policies on missile defense and global warming.

Some European media have depicted Bush as a "serialexecutioner" because of his record as governor of Texas where152 executions took place during his nearly six years inoffice.

The United States and Japan are the only two rich,industrialized democracies that still regularly put convictedcriminals to death.

Many Europeans are puzzled that the United States, acountry that holds itself up as a model of democracy and humanrights, continues to carry out death sentences.

An Inauspicious First Stop

McVeigh's execution had particularly strong resonance inSpain, where Bush was due to arrive Tuesday morning on thefirst stop of his European tour.

Joaquin Martinez, a 30-year-old Spaniard who was convictedand then cleared of double murder in the United States,returned home Sunday after spending three years on Florida'sdeath row.

His ordeal sparked public outrage in Spain, which is stillhaunted by memories of thousands of summary executions carriedout during the 1939-1975 dictatorship of Generalissimo Francisco Franco.

"This doesn't solve anything. The politics aren't based onjustice," said Pepe Mejia, spokesman for a coalition of Spanishgroups planning protests against Bush's visit to Madrid.

Unlike the Martinez case, few Europeans doubted McVeigh'sguilt in the worst terror bombing on U.S. soil. But manyslammed the U.S. government for using a form of punishment thatthey consider cruel and outdated.

"McVeigh committed a horrible crime. What he did or why hedid it is not being discussed — what is being discussed is thedeath sentence," said Sergio D'Elia, secretary of a protestgroup that demonstrated outside the U.S. Embassy in Rome.

"Bush built his race to the White House on a road pavedwith those have been put to death."

Pope John Paul II had joined with human rights groups inappealing in vain for Bush to spare McVeigh's life.